Bulldogs stun No. 7/6 Yale with 9-6 road victory Sunday afternoon

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – The Bryant University men's lacrosse team scored three unanswered goals to break a 6-6 tie and dominated play for three quarters en route to a marquee 9-6 road victory over No. 7/6 Yale Sunday afternoon at Reese Stadium.

A key defensive adjustment following a 4-1 Yale (1-2) start and strong play from the faceoff X jumpstarted a five-goal stretch spanning two halves that took the Bulldogs (3-3) from a three-goal deficit to a 6-4 third-quarter advantage.

Senior attack Tucker James (Essex Fells, N.J.) highlighted that stretch with a pair of tallies, and the captain would lead eight different goal scorers for the Black and Gold, finishing a headline program victory with a game-best four points (2 goals, 2 assists).

"This is the fifth game in a row where we've been entering the fourth quarter up or down one or two goals, and we were only 1-3 in the previous four," said Bryant head coach Mike Pressler. "So to pull this out against as good a team as there is in the country, and to do it on the road, is a confidence builder for our team."

Trailing 2-0 in the game's first 2:09 and 4-1 after the opening 46 seconds of the second quarter, the Bulldogs regrouped defensively out of a called timeout and began to limit a potent Yale attack to shots from the outside, allowing junior netminder James Werner (New Rochelle, N.Y.) better looks on his way to tying his career high (12 saves).

"Defensively, we mix man and zone by nature," said Pressler. "We play multiple defenses, and I think going back to the zone allowed us to gather ourselves and slow the tempo down a little bit, and that was certainly a positive thing."

After withstanding a barrage of first-quarter shots (13), the Bryant defense stood tall after the switch, opening the door for its offensive counterparts to chip away at the home side's lead.

Senior Ryan Sharpe (Poway, Calif.) would start the Black and Gold comeback just minutes into the second off a feed from Kyle Cornell (Darien, Conn.) to cut Yale's lead back to 4-2. It would take nearly 10 more minutes to half that deficit, but senior midfielder Brett Baker (Ridgefield, Conn.) would find room between the pipes with 3:25 to go in the half.

Less than a minute later, James would get on the board, getting free to create his own shot and tie the score at 4-4 entering the halftime break.

"We survived a very poor start," said Pressler. "They were all over us early. It was 3-1 after the first, and it could have been worse than that. But we gathered ourselves and fought back, and it was huge to be tied at halftime after that first quarter."

Bryant wouldn't sacrifice any momentum out of the intermission, taking its first lead of the day three minutes into the third with another unassisted James tally, before rookie Kevin Quigley (Fairfax Station, Va.) doubled that edge to 6-4 with the fifth-straight Bulldog score with 10 still on the clock in the stanza.

But the home side would not go quietly, putting an end the Bryant's run and recouping those two third-quarter scores in a two-minute, two-goal spurt from Eric Scott and Matt Gaudet. The tallies re-knotted the game at 6-6 with 5:39 remaining in the third.

"Mentally and emotionally, we handled the second half better than we have all season, and that turnaround was very exciting to see," said Pressler. "After halftime, we never let them lead, and that was huge for us in the end."

And after a Cam Ziegler (Carlsbad, Calif.) goal gave the Bulldogs back the one-goal edge, 7-6, with seven ticks to go in the third, Werner and the Bryant defense would take over and prove impenetrable in the fourth, holding Yale to just three shots while the visitors tacked on two more goals (Tom Kennedy, Tom Forsberg) for the 9-6 victory.

The Bulldogs controlled play for most of the final three quarters thanks in large part to the play of Kenny Massa (Huntington, N.Y.) at the faceoff X. The junior went 12-for-19 with a game-high nine ground balls, including a perfect 6-for-6 mark in the third stanza.

"There were two things for us," said Pressler. "First, we won faceoffs, and Kenny Massa was a big part of that. Second, we made saves. Our two specialty positions were lights out today, and that proved to be the difference in the outcome."

Bryant outshot Yale, 21-11, in the second half and 37-32 in the contest, taking a 27-26 edge in the ground ball game. But arguably the most significant stat came in the clearing game, where the Bulldogs held the team with the nation's top clearing percentage to just 3-for-7 in the fourth quarter. Yale committed seven turnovers in the final frame.

The Bulldogs return to action Friday, March 10, when they travel to Drexel for a 5 p.m. matchup in Philadelphia.